Is THEM Guilty of Shirk? - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

ownership rights over this Islam that I don‘t have. You have ownership rights (and responsibilities) only
over your particular understanding of the religion, as do I, mine.
Secondly, you state the following:
―You are presenting us with these hadiths that have no relevance to God being a man in the Qur‘an.
When Allah makes mention of His Hand, Tree, Animals, Ants etcetera. These are languages that speak in
metaphor, and a metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another.‖
Where is your proof, Beloved, that the Ayat al-Sifāt are metaphors? You have here, as is often done (e.g.
Bro Mubaashir and Bro Imam Salim), made an assumption about Allah‘s word based on your own
theological preferences, but offer no empirical evidence to justify that assumtion. You have the right to
make such an assumption, but don‘t presume that I or we are contradicting the Qur‘an because we reject
your theological preference and the assumptions about the Qur‘an that derive from it. Show in the Arabic
Qur‘an where Allah identifies the Ayat al-Sifat as mutashābihāt (ambiguous) and therefore as metaphors?
Or, show me where the Prophet Muhammad identified these as metaphors that are not to be taken as
literal representations of God. I have provided evidence indicating that the Prophet expected us to
understand a REAL eye and a REAL hand, etc., when he recited the Ayat al-Sifat. What evidence has
anyone here provided that can impeach or impugn the evidence I have provided? I have also provided
evidence that it was the Classical Sunni (Traditionalist) position that the Ayat al-Sifat were in fact among
the mukhamāt verses and therefore are to be understood according to their apparent meaning, not majāz
or metaphorical. You chose not to address that evidence. Instead, as is often done, you chose to ‗wax
dogmatic‘ by insisting with no evidence that these verses are metaphors. Your case, Beloved, is totally
unpersuasive. The hadith I cite are indeed relevant because, as Imam Ahmad and others have affirmed,
―The Sunna clarifies the Qur‘an.‖ While the Qur‘an is somewhat ambiguous – it neither explicitly affirms
or denies that Allah is a man – the Sunna of the Prophet clears up that ambiguity: Allah is a divine
man(shakhs) who is incomparable - laysa kamithlihi shay‘.
While I do agree with you Bro Muhammad that the ―Qur‘an is our first source, contact, reference before
we go to any other book for clear understanding,‖ the issue here is what do we do when the explicit words
of the Qur‘an do not provide us with clear understanding? Your claim that ―all we need is the truth (Al-
Qur'an) and we do have the truth‖ is to be summarily dismissed. If, when you go to Juma‘ and, while
making salat, do qabd (clasp your left hand with your right), why do you do this? Or, even if you are a
Maliki or a Shiite who does sadl (hands held freely by the side while praying), where do you get these
practices from? Not the Qur‘an. The Book of Allah tells us to pray, but it never tells us exactly HOW to
pray. The manner of our obligatory prayers derive almost wholly from the Sunna, either via hadith (e.g.
qabd) or amal (the practice of Medinia - sadl). If all you had was the Qur‘an, Friday afternoon in the
masajid would look profoundly deferent than it does now. In fact, ISLAM would look profoundly
different. So let us not act like we can easily dispense with the Sunna – you know well that we cannot.
Finally, you address the important aya in the Qur‘an, Surat al-A‟rāf [7]:143, which reads:
And when Moses came at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said: ―My Lord, show
Yourself to me that I may look upon You.‖ [God] said: ―You can‘t see Me (lan taranī); but look at the
mountain. If it remains in its place then you will see Me. So when his Lord appeared (tajallā) to the
mountain He made it crumble and Moses fell dumbstruck on account of the lightning (sa‟iq an). Then when
he recovered, he said: Glory to You! I turn to You, and I am the first of the believers!
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